Why Golden Abyss Isn't In The Uncharted Collection

By Weston Albert 28 November 2017

Leaked then officially revealed back in June, the wait is nearly over for Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection. In just over a week, veteran fans and new gamers alike will be able to play remastered versions of the PlayStation 3 classics Uncharted 1, 2, and 3 on PlayStation 4 as they wait for the next and final installment in the series, Uncharted 4: Thieves’ End.

Uncharted developer Naughty Dog has already revealed what’s new in The Nathan Drake Collection, including a story-focused Explorer mode and a Brutal difficulty mode, as well as some omissions, such as multiplayer from the last two entries in the series.

But what wasn’t known until now is why the PlayStation Vita spinoff, Uncharted: Golden Abyss, didn’t make the cut for the collection. Naughty Dog says it was “definitely under consideration,” but they ultimately decided against including it because it wasn’t necessary to narratively set up Uncharted 4.

At EGX in Europe this weekend, Naughty Dog’s community strategist Arne Meyer explained to Power Up Gaming exactly why Golden Abyss didn’t get a spot in The Nathan Drake Collection:

When we went back and looked at what we were trying to do with The Nathan Drake Collection, we realized that those three games – the trilogy – actually provided a particular narrative arc that led to Uncharted 4. We wanted to keep that as a holistic collection for that reason, and Golden Abyss kind of lives a little bit outside of that.

Golden Abyss was not developed by Naughty Dog, but instead by Sony developer Bend Studio, best known for creating the Syphon Filter franchise. And despite it missing the cut for the Uncharted Collection, Golden Abyss is by no means a bad game. In fact, Game Rant gave it a 4 out of 5 and it has an 80 Metacritic score.

Considering The Nathan Drake Collection is already sitting at a nearly 45 GB install size and how seriously Naughty Dog is working to nail the narrative of Uncharted 4, Naughty Dog’s emphasis is clearly on taking players through a focused narrative journey of Nathan Drake to prepare them for Drake’s last journey. They want to use the Uncharted Collection as a primer for any new PS4 owners that may be thinking about checking out Uncharted 4.

Will you miss Golden Abyss in The Nathan Drake Collection? Let us know in the comments below.

Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection launches October 9 in North America and Octorber 7 in Europe. It was developed by Bluepoint Games, a studio with a pedigree for compiling collections of some of gaming’s finest franchises, including the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection and the God of War Collection. Also, a demo will be hitting the PlayStation Store tomorrow, September 29, featuring the Nepal Warzone level from Uncharted 2: Among Thieves.